pickles wrote:This is the NRL not some local footy club. The only thing that matters is wins and losses and no one means more to the club than that.
I am sure that this team can play better than what they have. They’ve done it for short periods of games before completely falling to pieces. This far into the season and we still haven’t put a good 80 minutes together. It just isn’t good enough at this level.
Good teams at the moment are doing 2 things well. Defending for long periods without conceding points when the inevitable run of 6 agains and penalties goes against them. And converting their scoring opportunities when they arise. At the moment we can’t do either.
We play with no structure in attack and seem to be one of the laziest teams in the comp in terms of effort plays like getting back to marker, making tackles from marker, putting pressure on kickers, kick chase and getting back to help out after a kick. We do it sporadically and the good teams do it every play.
We also don’t seem to have a single player out there who is interested in putting their hand up and doing what it takes to win.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to another episode of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory against the bulldogs this weekend! The only real creativity we have shown this season is inventing new ways to lose!
Totally agree with all this, especially the football side, except for one thing. For all intents and purposes the NRL is run like a local footy club.
With few exceptions, I reckon everyone involved in the NRL - central admin and across the clubs - has no business being involved in professional sport and the sport would be better served if they were working for their local club. Ideally for rugby league that would also be in a different code.
Essentially, we can not be a professional sport when the majority of stakeholders are amateurs and snake oil salesmen that got lucky, and have convinced themselves that they are not only good at their jobs and deserve their positions, but also that luck has nothing to do with it.
Again, with some exceptions, this whole unseemly business, with everyone in on the rort, underpins the relationships between the media and the football clubs, the coaches, and the agents.
In some respects players and fans probably have the most in common, as players are disposable and fans barely enter into the thinking of the establishment at all.
Local footy has its own problems and the NRL occasionally gets some things right, but that’s beside the point.
Anyway, sorry Pickles, I do agree with you (was picking up on the Crawley stuff as well).
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